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From the Director's Desk...
Woodstock Report No. 74, June 2003One of my favorite adventure stories is the true tale entitled Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, brilliantly narrated by Alfred Lansing. I also enjoyed the cinematic version of how Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew of 27 men heroically survived a failed attempt to cross Antarctica on foot. How the crew of 27 heroically faced adversity under Shackleton's extraordinary leadership is itself worthy of admiration. Each crew member was "reaching for the common good," that is, beyond the particular good of each. In this way they all managed to return alive and achieve the common human good of all.
"Reaching for the common good" is the theme of this Woodstock Report, and of our ongoing effort to find new ways of seeking the common good in today's world. Each of us struggles mightily each day against obstacles to the global common good in a post-9/11 world. We ask ourselves what "reaching for the common good" really means in our own experience. Does it lead us to the valuing of our differences and get us beyond the walls of suspicion and fear?
We are in a situation like the members of Shackleton's crew on the Endurance. But we need more than ordinary common sense to get us through the impasse we face in the world. We need to have a sound spirituality. Woodstock puts the tools of Jesuit spirituality to work so that we can value what the common good is concretely in our own daily decision-making. If God's love is poured into every human heart through the Holy Spirit, then through our creativity, the individual, local, national, and even global human good become compatible in new ways.
This Woodstock Report offers an edited version of an eloquent presentation made last December 12 at Woodstock entitled "The Common Good and Christian Ethics" by Fr. David Hollenbach, S.J., Margaret O'Brien Flatley professor of Catholic theology, Boston College. David refers to Jesuit spirituality. His term "intellectual solidarity" is particularly applicable to Woodstock.
Reaching for the common good is one subheading in a reflection by Fr. Thomas Massaro, S.J., professor of moral theology at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, author of Living Justice: Catholic Social Teaching in Action. This issue of the Woodstock Report carries a short version of Tom's Woodstock public lecture, "Welfare Reform Today: Catholic Perspectives," delivered on April 24 at Georgetown University.
If you want to know how "reaching for the common good" is an element in many of our seminars and a theme that runs through many Woodstock projects, see "The Common Good and Woodstock's Life of Intellectual Solidarity," by Fr. Ted Arroyo, S.J. in this issue.
In Gratitude. We heartily thank Fr. Joseph Tylenda, S.J., for his nine years of service as Woodstock librarian. Joe will move back to his native Scranton area this summer where he will continue his writing and pastoral work.
Finally, my deep gratitude goes to those whose financial support has kept Woodstock vibrant. If you have not done so already, please help us to make ends meet as we come to the end of June. You can make all the difference for Woodstock!
Gasper F. Lo Biondo, S.J.
Director
